You know,
making remarks like that are key things that affect the way you think and affect
your behaviors as well.
Ageism in the workplace, why does it exist and how do you eradicate it?
My name is Grace,
host of the Career Revisionist Podcast and founder of Mastery Insights where I
help savvy professionals to build
careers of significance and expand that into living a life of fulfillment.
So maybe you've been working in the same
company at the same industry for 20 years.
You've been known for something and you want to be known for
something different.
Maybe you're starting to notice this trend that your employers or companies are
starting to hire younger candidates.
Maybe you get this feeling in your heart that it's time to transition to
something new, a new career direction,
and then your brain reminds you of your age.
So this is if you are experiencing ageism,
that's what I want to talk to you about. For those who are experiencing
ageism and you are feeling that as an older candidate it is harder or it seems
like it is impossible to move to a different career path.
That's what I want to be talking to you about today.
Now it's easy to accept a defeatist point of view,
especially if you've experienced being treated as less capable the older your
appearance suggests that you are. But it's important to know one thing,
the truth about ageism is that it occurs across the entire age spectrum.
Both younger and older individuals will experience ageism.
I remember when I first entered the workforce,
when I was in my Bachelor's degree between degrees,
I always was applying for summer jobs and I wanted a summer job,
summer positions that would accelerate my career.
I wanted to choose something that was relevant and related to give me skills to
be able to establish myself in the
future and every time that I had applied for a position,
that I got an interview, I always felt that there was an
experience where they looked at my age and I was young,
and you know I was 21 - 22, and I felt that there was a
feeling that I didn't have enough experience or I didn't have enough maturity.
So you see younger people also experienced ageism,
but it's more common to hear about stories and to hear about perspectives from
older people experience ageism.
But it's important to recognize that it doesn't matter how old you are,
which end of the spectrum you are,
ageism is experienced across the age spectrum. Well,
I have some good news for you.
The fact is our age is not a barrier to work performance.
Decades of neuroscience research shows that with age,
it does not mean that you are less effective at work.
It does not mean that you are less energetic or less ambitious or less capable
to fulfill your job functions.
There's no evidence of that through decades of neuroscience research. In fact,
our brain is innately capable, as our brain structure,
we are capable as we age to adopt to the changing environment.
We are capable of learning new things. In fact,
there is no limit to our potential and what we are to learn.
And the brain does this through adaptation in a process that neuroscientists
calls neuroplasticity.
So with neuroplasticity our brain can mold itself and adjust to learning new
things. So with that said,
the myth is that as we get older that we're less capable,
that we're less energetic and that we're less able to
learn new things and take on new responsibilities.
But that is not true. So with that in mind,
when you hear that you should feel more empowered and feel less
defeatist as you get older, as you want to try new things,
go ahead. Don't feel that you are limited because of
your age because there is no evidence to suggest that there's a cap on your
potential. So why does ageism happen?
Studies on ageism in the Journal of Gerontology show that ageism is as a result
of biases as well as a lot of stereotypes,
negative stereotypes that we hold or self stereotypes that we hold on ourselves.
And other people and they happen without the individual's awareness.
So a person could be exhibiting ageism
points of views and perspectives without their own awareness.
So let's say that an employer chooses not to
hire somebody and that person's appearance,
that candidates appearance appeared on the older spectrum
and that employer chose not to hire him.
And if a third person, a third party were to ask that employer,
why did you choose not to hire them?
What happens in that person, that employers mind,
is that if they see themselves as a fair individual,
they see themselves as a rational individual and as an ethical individual,
then they are more likely to give their
reasons for not hiring the person and they will not talk about "it's because of
their age", \they would give some other reason other than an ageist response.
And the reason why is because if they have a self image,
if they have a self image of themselves that they are reasonable,
that they are ethical, then they would not go against that self image. Right.
So they are unaware of any ageism that did occur
subconsciously when making that hiring decision.
So in essence that employer is more likely to attribute their
reasons not to hire that candidate for reasons that fit their own self image as
being a reasonably fair individual.
So they might attribute the reasons for things like not enough work experience
or not the right cultural fit.
One of the most interesting things about having stereotypes about age is that
it's a self fulfilling prophecy. And here's what I mean by that.
Older individuals who are exposed to negative stereotypes about their age,
those individuals are more likely to experience memory lapses.
They're more likely to have lowered memory or lowered performance.
That is exactly what people expect of older age, which is not true, right?
And so here's the thing.
If you internalize the way people treat you and you are experiencing these
negative stereotypes and you accept them to be true,
they become a self fulfilling prophecy, right? So the way people
treat you and the way you internalize that in, and as a result,
it doesn't just affect the way your body and your
appearance and your external qualities, it affects the way you perform.
It affects the way that you show up in the workplace as well.
And when younger people would see that,
when younger candidates see that, or employers see that,
it just reconfirms their notion, just subconsciously
reconfirms their notion of ageism, right?
The point of view of all the stereotypes, it's just a reconfirmation
that this was what they believe to be true and that it is indeed true.
So it's a self fulfilling prophecy and it creates
this cycle of negative stereotypes about ageism.
So how do you eradicate ageism? The first pillar to eradicating
ageism is to take an honest look,
an honest reflection on how do negative stereotypes about age,
how does that infiltrate into your own behaviors and into your own thinking?
So the key to doing that is to resist those ageist remarks,
to resist those ageist messages that will constantly be out there.
And we have no way to stop them.
And to do that it's about feeling optimistic about getting older.
I mean there's many positives to getting older to having that level of maturity,
that work experience and having life experience.
So learn how to be comfortable with it,
learn how to see the benefits of it and learn how to embrace getting older.
And then of course it's to challenge your own assumptions about age,
challenge your
own assumptions about getting older and don't fall into the traps of saying
things like, Oh, you know,
I must've had a senior moment or that was me getting older. Oh forgive me,
I'm having an aging brain here. You know,
making remarks like that are key things that affect the way you think and affect
your behaviors as well. Because when you say those words,
although you're joking, maybe you are trying to accept and to fit in.
Maybe you are just making a casual remark, but these words are very powerful,
right? Words are very powerful.
So be careful what you say and don't fall under the trap of making ageist jokes
like that because it gives other people permission to see it that way. Right?
They might not know that you're joking or they might actually take
it to heart and take it seriously in some way.
So challenge your own assumptions about ageism and what it means to get older.
I want to hear from you.
Comment below if you have experienced ageism and as well,
if you enjoy this content, give me a thumbs up and remember to hit that,
ring that bell and subscribe to my
channel so you receive notifications each time I upload a new video.
And if you have experienced ageism
in the workplace and you are trying to transition to something new,
you want to be known for something else.
I invite you to a free training that I've done. It's a four day free training.
Just go to that and learn how you can
accelerate your career learning principles of business development and just go
to that link it is careerrevisionist.com/training
the link is below and I'll see you there.
Another pillar to eradicate ageism is to look for evidence on the contrary.
Look for evidence that disproves the foundation of ageism.
Let me give you an example. Here's one example of evidence that disproves it.
While millennials are great at understanding technology,
they're more tech savvy. Baby boomers and generation y have work,
experience and maturity. Here's another one.
Older generations bring business wisdom, life,
wisdom and the resilience to weather, the increasing pace of change.
And here's yet another example
I'm going to give you that disproves the foundation of ageism. Here it is.
We all, as a human race, as human beings, we all have the desire to learn,
to grow and to develop personally.
And that has less to do with age and it has more to do with personality.
The next pillar to eradicate ageism is not to make age an issue,
so you have control over what you talk about and what you don't talk about.
So try to avoid bringing age into the conversation. Just don't make an issue.
And if someone else does be.
prepared to speak on it and someone else brings it up,
age as an issue in an interview or in a conversation,
just try to divert the conversation back to your experience,
your work experience and how that's an asset rather than a liability.
Be strategic as you're searching for new career directions,
a promotion or a new job function as well.
And when you are searching for your focus, your career focus,
focus on opportunities that highlight where you were an agile learner,
where you adopted to technology,
where you were resilient in the face of change.
And when you are talking to individuals,
when you're talking to potential employers or perspective employers,
tell them stories of how you adapted to that change, how you showed resilience,
how you were an agile
learner and how you continue to confidently develop your career.
And of course throughout your career
journey you want to build relationships with people.
You want to build a network that is multigenerational and as you do so,
becoming more sensitive to the needs of other people.
And when you do so you can also
stand up and be confident of expressing more of who you are and highlighting
your experience and the value
that you bring to an organization across generations.